A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of foamable compositions. More particularly, it concerns a blend of saccharides that can be used as a foam booster or foam-enhancing agent to enhance the foaming capabilities of a given composition. The saccharide blend can include a combination of an aldohexose (e.g., glucose or dextrose or both), a ketohexose (e.g. fructose), and a disaccharide (e.g., maltose) in specified weight % ranges that can then be added to and enhance the foaming properties of any given composition.
B. Description of Related Art
Many industries and consumers desire foamable compositions, or composition that are capable of being foamed. For example, foamable compositions can be used to deliver and control the application of a given drug or cosmetic ingredient to skin (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,454,787; 8,211,449; and 9,050,253). Foamable compositions can be used to fill voids or penetrate porous surfaces such as in solid propant delivery to assist in recovery of fluids from fractured formations (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,454,787 and 4,718,493). Cleaning/extracting compositions can use foamable compositions to move undesired waste into a foam and away from the item being cleaned (U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,159). Foamable compositions can be used to capture gaseous waste so that it is not released into the atmosphere (U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,665). Further, consumers may prefer foaming products because of the foam texture. Also, consumers may desire foamable cleaning compositions because it implies to the consumer that the composition is cleaning, such as with shampoos, soaps, body washes, or toothpastes.
The foams produced by foamable compositions vary greatly, and not all foams are suitable for all applications. Foam characteristics that vary can include foaming power, foam quantity, foam stability, foam density, foam load capacity, foam texture, and the speed at which a foam is created. Further, some foams are more resilient to changes in the foaming agent or to the presence of agents that can modify the characteristics of a foam, such as anti-foaming agents. For example, some foamable compositions lose foaming power when a small or threshold amount of an anti-foaming agent is added to the composition. However, anti-foaming agents can include oils, fragrances, solids, etc., that are desired or necessary for the end use of the foamable composition.
In most cases, foamable compositions contain one or a mixture of surfactants that act as a foaming agents that enable the composition to form a foam. However, not every surfactant or foaming agent is suitable for all applications where a foam is desired or required. As an example, some foaming agents are irritants or toxic and are not suitable for cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications. Other foaming agents are not capable of providing foam stability for more than a few second, and some foaming agents cannot provide the required foam load capacity for certain applications. In some applications, suitable foaming agents and concentrations thereof can be limited, which also limits the foam characteristics possible for foamable compositions suitable for those applications.
To overcome these limitations, foam boosters (also referred to as foam-enablers or foam enhancers) can in some instances be added to a given foamable composition to modify the characteristics of the foam. There are several patents and applications that describe foam boosters or foam-enablers. For example, EP 1661976 A1 discloses ethercarboxylates and glycerine derivatives as foam-enhancing agents in aqueous compositions. U.S. Publication No. 2010/0152089 discloses a liquid cleaning agent having a foam booster that can be alkylaminocarboxylic acid salts, fatty acid amides, fatty acid alkanolamides, betaines, sulfobetaines, polymeric compounds, or mixtures thereof. These foam boosters can be expensive, cause skin irritation, and can be chemically reactive and prone to react with other ingredients in a given product formulation, thereby introducing instability into the formulation.
In some instances, attempts have been made to use saccharides in foamable compositions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,837 discloses a shampoo composition that comprises about 15 to 70% by weight of a water-miscible saccharide. The presence of saccharide in the shampoo is taught to increase the foam quality at a given concentration of detergents, or to maintain the same level of foam quality at a lower detergent concentration. However, the concentration of saccharides in the shampoo is quite high, at about 15 to 70% by weight of the total weight of the composition, which can negatively affect the rheological and tactile properties of the composition. Still further, the patent explains that saccharide levels below 15 wt. % “do not provide sufficient foam viscosity enhancement or thickening.”
Other cosmetic and cleansing compositions have also included saccharides, but the ability of the saccharides to enhance or boost the foaming characteristics of the compositions have not been defined. Further, the specific compositional makeup of the saccharides in these references lacks specificity. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,761 concerns a hair conditioner that includes beer concentrate. The beer concentrate is said to have a mixture of proteins and polysaccharides. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,438 discloses a shampoo that has “sugar” present in the shampoo at 0.5 wt. % and a sugar alcohol (sorbitol) present at 10 wt. %. U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,951 discloses a list of various polyols that can be included in a gel-based cleansing composition.